{ Impinging on Chesapeake Bay }

How does a mentality of “not in my backyard” manifest itself as interference with another region’s cleanup efforts? From NoCoast to the East Coast, real sorry about this.

Attorneys general in 21 states are backing an attempt to derail the Obama administration’s Chesapeake Bay cleanup plan, fearing that the government will use that authority to regulate wastewater in other watersheds, including the Mississippi River Basin.

The states include Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming. Because, you know, states in completely different watersheds should have a say in the Chesapeake Bay.

Although farm and industrial pollution in the Mississippi River causes an immense Gulf of Mexico dead zone that kills marine life, the EPA has said it has no interest in orchestrating a cleanup plan that states in the region haven’t requested and aren’t prepared to develop, unlike the Chesapeake Bay region.